The Mad Witch's Ib 2
by EllenandViola
Summary: The sequel to The Mad Witch's Ib. uwu If u haven't read that I suggest you do because then it'll make more sense. Also ****SPOILERS**** Here's deh link to the first one! (If u wanna read it) /s/9857417/1/The-Mad-Witch-s-Ib
1. Begin

_This gallery is a huge place. I can't even begin to imagine how long it must have taken Guertena to put that much spirit into his work... ...I wonder where Viola is?_

Aki and Viola had stayed behind in the Fabricated World; Viola because she sacrificed herself to save Mary, and Aki because she had been killed after burning Misao's painting.

"Huh..."

_She's probably exploring again...looking for paintings to hang out with..._

Viola had turned the creepy blue dolls into dolls that looked...almost like normal dolls that younger girls played with. _They still creep me out a little though...those eyes...won't stop staring..._

Of course, Viola and Aki both had paintings as well. Viola's was of a beautiful rose garden, a greyish house with a red roof in the background and green roses decorating the edges of the painting. Aki's was of a schoolyard, not unlike Misao's, but with grey roses dotted here and there, and more people in the background. Aki couldn't spot any figure that looked remotely like Misao in the painting, though.

_ I wonder when more people will visit the gallery? Or when more people will hang the Guertena paintings somewhere else?_ Aki had been waiting for ages, but every time she found someone she could trap in the gallery, they fled from her, calling her numerous names such as "monster" and "witch". Aki knew that if she were to escape the gallery, she would have to trap someone here, and have them killed. Otherwise she wouldn't be able to leave.

_Your heart is Fabricated..._

The words rang in her head. She had first heard them as she'd followed Misao into the blackness, but she didn't know how strong their meaning was.

_Your heart is Fabricated... ...I can't believe it...I'm really stuck in here._

Mary awoke to the sounds of birds cheerfully chirping . It had been a while since she had finally escaped the gallery, and she felt no guilt, no remorse, no nothing for what had happened.

_I wonder what's going to happen today?_

Mary loved being outside, breathing in the fresh air which had for so long been unreachable for her. She ran outside without any shoes on, feeling the cool grass beneath her feet.

Suddenly, there was a loud rumbling sound. It came from beneath her, and it sounded like the roaring of a monster. It was like the whole world was being split in half by a giant knife.

Almost straight after that, the ground opened up; a huge black crater that stretched back to the front door of the house. Before she really knew what was happening, Mary was falling, falling, falling. It seemed like she would never hit the floor. When she did, it wasn't solid ground that she hit. It was water. And she continued falling, past sea monsters that looked vaguely familiar. At that point, the world turned black.

Mary awoke in a blue hallway. _What..? Is this...the gallery?!_


	2. A Black Rose

Leah sat on her own in her room, as usual. Her parents hadn't yet come home from...whatever they were doing. It wasn't worrying her though; this happened a lot.

The house was completely silent except for the ticking of the large grandfather clock. It was very loud and Leah could still hear it from her room, even though it was a whole floor away.

The house was silent, so perhaps that was why.

Nothing happened for quite a while. Leah just sat on her bed and stared into space, thinking.

Suddenly, a pair of hands came out of a painting behind her. Leah didn't scream, though she felt a jolt of shock run up her spine.

_What's going on...? Where did these hands come from?_

The hands that had been squeezing her shoulders seemed to disappear, and she was falling. She fell a long, long way, and at one point it seemed she was tumbling through water.

Leah landed on a cold blue floor. She grunted, got to her feet, and took a look around. To the left there was a door. She pulled on the handle, but it was locked.

_Guess I'll have to find a key..._

To the right was another door, but there was a table blocking it. In the vase was a bunch of four roses.

The roses were all different colours: yellow, red, lilac and black.

_Why are those roses there? What do they mean?_

Before she could figure it out, Leah heard a thud behind her, back where the entrance was.

She rushed back and saw a girl lying face-first on the floor.

"Hello?" Leah said cautiously, stepping a little closer.

"Wh-what?" the girl murmured.

She sat up properly, and looked around, dazed.

"I-I'm...what...?! H-how did I get h-here?!" the girl gasped, her big blue eyes darting around, searching the area.

"Um...hi...I'm Leah," Leah said, pushing her red-brown hair behind her ear.

"Leah...? That's a pretty name. I'm Mary!" the girl-Mary-stood up and smiled at Leah. Her smile faded as she glanced around more. "Oh...I'm back here...again..."

"What do you mean by...here?" Leah tipped her head to the side.

"It's kinda hard to explain...I was here once before...then I escaped. It looks like I've been brought back though...I don't know how. I thought..."

"So...this place...what is it?"

"It's a gallery! Well...a 'haunted' gallery. Paintings by Guertena are here, and they live in this place! Cool, right? He's a really good artist!" Mary giggled.

"You mean was," Leah corrected. "He's dead now."

Mary stopped and stared at her. "He's not dead, silly! He's out in the real world! He just left this place so he could live his life!"

"No, he's definitely dead, I'm a hundred percent sure of it."

Before Mary could argue back, Leah spun on her heel and moved back towards the roses. "Anyway, if you've been to this...'gallery' before, do you know what these roses are for?"

Mary plodded along behind her, looking a little sad and disappointed. "Yeah, they're pretty much your life in this place. If a petal falls off, that means you've been injured somewhere. If all the petals are gone, then you're dead."

"So how will I know which one's mine?" Leah asked.

"Well...I know mine's yellow...Hey!" Mary exclaimed, pointing at the red and lilac roses. "I've seen those two roses before! Ib must be here! And Ellen!" Mary's face lit up again, a big smile stretched across her face.

Ib? Ellen? Who're they?

"Are they friends of yours?"

"Yeah!" Mary replied. "We were all here together last time, and it looks like those two were also dragged back down here!"

Leah blinked. _So Ib and Ellen each have a lilac rose and a red rose...Mary's rose is yellow, so mine must be the black one._

As she reached for the black rose, Leah felt the air turn cold. Suddenly, on the wall, writing appeared. It was in blue paint.

'Come' was all it said.

Leah shivered and grabbed the rose.

Almost instantly, Mary moved the table aside and opened the door. Inside was a small blue room. A painting of a woman with long teal hair was stuck to the far wall.

Blonde hair whipped past Leah, and Mary stooped to pick up something on the ground.

Leah noticed the painting change a little.

_...Strange..._

Aki sat in a chair, bored. Mary and the other girl weren't doing much, just standing around talking.

_Come on, do something! _She thought impatiently, then stopped. _No, I can't force them to do anything. That wouldn't be right. I can't make the same mistakes Misao and Mary made._

Sighing, Aki got to her feet. _I don't know what to do now...I didn't want to bring them down here, but I had no choice. And Ib and Ellen have already gone ahead, but they're both in different areas. That other girl...Leah, I think her name is-and Mary are lucky to be together._

She cast her mind to a bird's eye view of the gallery. In on of the entrances, Mary and Leah were examining the roses, Leah looked bored and Mary excited.

In another area, the blood room, Ellen had her hand on the wall and was abviously searching for her rose.

Ib was in a dark corridor. She looked at ease, and Aki wondered if she had been there before as she let one of the hands pop out of the wall and grab her, dragging her into the pale green room.

_I'm so sorry, everyone...I really am...but I have to get out of here. I have to get out and find out what happened to everyone. I can't leave them to suffer Misao's curse without me._

Before Aki had been captured by Mary, her class at school had spread rumours about Misao cursing the school, as she had gone missing a while before. Aki had heard about someone going to the bathroom, and not coming back. And she herself had thought she'd heard the giggle of a little girl one day as she was rushing to class.

_Misao must have cursed the school...Mary would've tricked her into killing herself so she could stay as a painting down in this gallery. _

Aki gave another small sigh and leaned against the wall. _At least Viola and Ellen can be together again. Where is Viola, though? Oh, she could be anywhere._

Straightening up, Aki went to search for the other 'girl'.

_I'm sorry..._


	3. Lost

Ellen stared confusedly around the blood room.

_Why am I here again? And where's my rose?!_

It seemed there was no exit from the room, and the walls were starting to make her feel queasy.

_I need my rose...! There has to be a way out of here!_

Ellen furrowed her brows and stared thoughtfully at the wall.

_Can I use my magic to find an exit?_

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then the exit came to her. It was next to a table (which had once held a vase and a diary) on the far side of the room.

The witch smiled to herself and crossed the room, pressing her hand on the part of the wall the door was and pushed.

It swung open, leading her to a blue room with a painting of a woman with long teal hair.

_I've never been here before...I wonder where it leads?_

Ellen exited the room and came to a long, dark hallway. To the right was, thankfully, a vase with a red rose and a lilac rose.

_Finally, my rose! And Ib's...she must be here, too!_

Ellen grabbed her and Ib's rose and turned to look down the hallway.

She couldn't believe her eyes. At the end of it was..

_Mary! _

There was also another girl, but Ellen didn't recognize her.

"Mary!" she yelled, rushing towards the bewildered girl.

Though Mary had trapped them in the Fabricated World last time, she had escaped, taking Viola's place. Ellen still felt a little resentment towards the ex-painting, but then, Viola had chosen to stay behind. That wasn't Mary's fault.

"Um...Mary...who's this?" said the other girl, staring at Ellen with deep amber eyes.

"I'm Ellen," said Ellen, smiling politely and holding out her hand. "Nice to meet you!"

The other girl hesitantly studied Ellen's hand, as if it were going to jump up and bite her. "I'm Leah..." she said eventually, smiling back.

"So you were trapped here too?" Mary blinked at Ellen. "I thought...I thought it was only us two! But there were the other two roses in the vase..."

"Ib's here too," Ellen told them. "Perhaps...Aya and Madotsuki...are here too? I haven't seen their roses, though..."

Mary stared at her yellow rose. "Hey...Leah...?"

"Yes?"

"Um...how'd you get here?"

"I was dragged by...something...down through a painting behind my bed. After that, I landed in this hallway."

Ellen tilted her head to the side. "I fell through a large split in the ground..."

"Me too! It must have been the same one...I wonder what happened after we fell? Will people miss us?" Mary sounded worried.

"No," Ellen replied. "Time up there is slower than it is down here. It can only have been a minute or so, I don't know. And we're the only ones who know about the split. No one else can see it."

Leah stared at her, mystified. "Really? Time down here is faster than it is up there? I wonder how that works?"

Ellen blinked. _Leah doesn't seem too shocked by the fact that we're stuck in a haunted art gallery._

"Ellen!" the girl yelled. "Ellen, I know you're here! Please, where are you?"

She sounded desperate, her pretty green eyes filling with despair as she got more and more lost in her own place.

Finally, she collapsed and started sobbing. "Where am I? Why has this happened? Mary! Ellen!"

I watched as the girl buried her head in her arms. _She's a painting too now...so why is she lost? Why is she sad? She has all of us with her._

I crawled down from the wall and made my way over to her. "What's wrong, honey?" I asked.

"I-I'm lost here! I know it sounds stupid...because I'm a painting and all...but...I've never been here before and...and...I'm looking for my...friend...!"

I smiled sympathetically. "It's alright, dear. You're only lost because you've taken the long way! Just go through that door over there-" I indicated a door with dark red paint on it. "and you'll be able to access the main entrance to the gallery."

The girl stopped crying and stood up, looking down at me. "Thank you," she sniffled. "I thought...I thought no one would help me..." she took a few hesitant steps towards the door. "That's the blood room, isn't it?"

"Yes," I said.

The painting-girl turned and stepped through the doorway.

_I wonder what will become of her now? _I thought, grinning.


	4. The Field Trip

"Heeey! Wait for me!" Ayaka called, waving after Aki, who was already getting on the bus. "We have to sit near Mr Sohta, Aki!"

Aki snorted, smiled and stood to the side as she waited for her friend.

"Ugh, could you be any slower?!" Yoshino complained from behind Ayaka.

Ayaka ignored her and caught up to Aki, patiently waiting at the door to the bus.

"C'mon, we gotta get a good seat!" Ayaka dragged Aki around to sit behind Mr Sohta, who was up at the front of the school bus.

Saotome and Tohma walked past, holding hands, and sat at the very back of the bus with Kudoh. Yoshino stomped along behind them, looking a little fed up.

"Hey Aki, what d'you think we're gonna see at the art gallery?!" Ayaka said excitedly, turning to face her best friend.

"Uh...I dunno, maybe art?" Aki raied her eyebrows, but giggled.

Just then, the bus started up. In front of the two girls, Mr Sohta was sitting quietly, thinking. He didn't notice (or care) that Ayaka was sitting a seat away from him, much to Ayaka's disappointment.

_Aw man! Why won't Mr Sohta notice me? Is it my hands? Are they not clean enough?!_

Ayaka pulled some hand cream out of her school bag.

"What are you doing?" Aki questioned.

"Gotta use some hand cream so Mr Sohta will notice me! Doo-doot-doo..."

Ayaka's voice trailed off and she and Aki spent most of the journey in silence.

Suddenly-

"So, what're you two up to?"

Yoshino's head appeared over the 'empty' seat behind Ayaka and Aki's.

"I thought you were sitting up the back with Tohma and Otome, Yoshino," Aki said, not turning around.

"I got bored of those lovebirds! I thought I'd pay you two a visit!"

"Hey, Yoshino, who d'you like?" Ayaka said immediately.

"Huh?! Me?!" Yoshino said indignantly. "No one! I don't like anyone in this class! They're all a bunch of looosers!"

"What about Tohma?" Aki smiled to herself.

"Tohma? You kiddin' me? He wishes!"

Ayaka giggled. "How about Kudoh?!"

"Nooo waaaay!" Yoshino furrowed her brows and turned away. "You guys are booooring! See ya!"

And with that, she slid back down her seat and moved towards her gang of friends.

"Phew!" Aki exclaimed. "That got rid of her!"

"Yeah! I'm not scared of that witch!"

"She bullied Misao a lot..." Aki sighed.

"Yeah...I wonder where Misao is now..."

_Hopefully in a nice place... _Ayaka thought.

They arrived at the art gallery soon after. Mr Sohta called the class together briefly, then let them go off and explore.

"Pfft! How old does he think we are, five?!" Yoshino snorted as she and her gang of girls turned right.

Aki and Ayaka were soon left standing at the front desk.

"Let's go up those stairs," Aki decided.

"I wanna find Mr Sohta!" Ayaka sighed, drifting away to the right.

"Okay then, suit yourself!" Aki called after her, heading up the stairs.

Of course, Aki didn't know how long it would be before she saw her best friend again.

A petal flew off the bright red rose. Ib staggered, but managed to stay standing. She was back in the room where she had first met Viola and Ellen. It was also one of the two ways to get to the red space.

_Last time Mary made the door appear after she blew the room up...but what if it was always there?_

Ib pressed her hand against the wall, where she was sure the door was. It didn't budge.

_Maybe it's somewhere else...? But where? It could take ages for me to find it!_

Ib sighed and leaned against another part of the wall. Suddenly, it shifted under her weight and she fell through the door into the next room.

"Yah!"

"Wh-what?!"

Ib found herself staring up at the faces of two girls. One of them had pinkish hair and was glaring down at her. The other had large amber eyes and wore a kinder expression.

"Who're you?!" the pink-haired girl demanded, as the other girl helped Ib to her feet.

"I'm Ib," Ib said. "what about you?"

"I'm Saotome and this is Yoshino," the girl with amber eyes said. She had long blonde hair tied into a ponytail.

"When did you guys end up in the gallery?"

"The gallery? You mean _this _place?" Yoshino snorted. "Well we were at school, as usual, when suddenly the lights in our dorm room went out. Saotome and I tripped and fell. We thought we were falling out of a window, but it turns out it was a painting! Spoooky!"

Ib glanced at their school uniforms. Yoshino's didn't look much like a uniform anymore. It looked as if she had customized it as much as possible. But Saotome's uniform looked a little familiar...

"Do you two know Aki?" Ib inquired.

"A-Aki?" Saotome repeated. "She's the...she was...in our class...but she and Misao went missing..."

"How do _you_ know her?!" Yoshino demanded.

"Aki? Oh, last time I was here I-"

"You were trapped here before?" Yoshino interrupted.

"Yeah, I was. Anyway, I was trapped here before with Aki and a few other people. Aki died here, so she became a painting. That why she went missing. Misao was a painting too, but..."

"Wait...Misao?! She's here? When I find her I'll-"

"But...?" Saotome interrupted Yoshino.

"Uh...she...she's dead. We had to burn her painting. She was going to kill us." Ib stared up at them.

"Huh! Misao?! Tried to kill you and Aki?! That doesn't seem like her at all!" Yoshino's eyes gleamed.

"Yeah..." Ib decided she didn't like Yoshino very much. "Wait, do you two have roses?"

"Roses?" Yoshino raised an eyebrow. "What do we need a damn _flower_ for?!"

"Roses are your form of a health bar down here. The more petals you lose, the more you get injured. See, I started off with five petals on my rose, now I have four. I got injured on my way here."

"I wondered why the heck you were carrying that thing around..."

"So...we need roses..." Saotome murmured thoughtfully. "Well...we did see a vase back there. There were two roses in it, so those must be ours!"

"Back there? You mean we have to get past that painting thing again?!" Yoshino complained.

"Well we do need our roses. Also, we have to find Tohma, Kudoh and Ayaka. Who knows where they could be?" Saotome sounded worried.

"Pssh! You're only worried because of _Tohma!_"Yoshino scoffed.

Ib moved ahead of them. She hadn't noticed, but they were standing in front of a painting called "Heartbeat". It kept making a strange sound.

They ran to the red door. Ib thought she caught a glimpse of the Lady in Red appearing, but then Yoshino pushed her through the door and slammed it shut.

"Phew! Now let's get those roses!"

The three of them moved through the room silently, then ended up in the red corridor that stretched both left and right.

The light blue vase was sitting on the table, as Ib had suspected. In the vase was a peach rose and a pink rose.

"Looking at this rose..." Saotome stared at the pretty pink flower. "I feel a strange attachment," she gently pulled it out of the vase and admired it. "It must be my one."

"So the peach-coloured one is mine!" Yoshino exclaimed, making a grab for the rose. In doing so, she knocked off one of the delicate petals and it fluttered to the ground. Yoshino jumped a little. "Yeowch! What the hell?!"

"You knocked a petal off your rose, Yoshino. Be careful with it!" Saotome warned.

"I knooow!" Yoshino rolled her eyes.

Ib stared at them worredly. _Will they really be okay?_


	5. Escape

"We should split up. It'll be faster that way."

"Yes, let's do that."

"I'll go with Ellen!"

"Okay. You two go into that...blood room...? Over there. I'll go past the room with the 'Ladies' paintings you two described."

"We'll meet in the Indigo Area?"

"Okay. Be careful, Ellen."

"We'll be fine! I used to live here, so I know my way around!"

"Good luck, Leah."

"You too."

"... ...Saotome, can you help me move this statue?" Yoshino panted.

"Well...I'm not very good at moving things, so-"

"Shut up and help! It's better than nothin'!"

"...Fine..." Saotome agreed.

Together, they managed to move the heavy statue out of the way.

"Ib, we did it!" Yoshino called.

No reply.

"Ib?!"

Silence.

"Where is she?!" Saotome sounded worried.

"I dunno! She must be back by the vase!"

They rushed back to the vase, but only found a red rose lying on the floor. Saotome picked it up carefully.

"This is...her rose...isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is," Yoshino stared at it, wide-eyed. "She must've been kidnapped or somethin'!"

"Wait a second..." Saotome murmured thoughtfully. "This doesn't feel like out roses...it feels...like...one of those fake flowers! Ib definitely had her real rose with her, so this one must be a fake!"

"Or maybe," added Yoshino. "she's been carrying this fake rose the whole time, and it wasn't real! Man, this is sooo spooky!"

Saotome placed the rose next to the blue vase and sighed. _What happened to Ib's real rose? Was the rose she was carrying even real? If so, where is it? And where did Ib go?!_

"We have to find her!" Saotome said urgently.

"Let's go that way! We haven't been there before!" Yoshino opened the door to the left of the vase.

The two of them wandered into the next room, keeping a look out for any other moving paintings. They found a picture of a 'Lady in Blue', but it didn't budge.

"Whew! I thought we'd have to run from one of them again!" Yoshino sighed.

"Hey...what's that over there?" Saotome ignored Yoshino and glanced back towards the door. It was a staircase, and it looked like it lead quite a way away from the gallery.

"Let's go up it! It might be our chance to escape!"

"But...we have to find Ib..." Saotome looked torn between saving Ib and possibly escaping the gallery.

"Oh come on! She's been here before, right? Twice? So she must be capable of lookin' after herself, right?!"

"I suppose...Her rose should be safe in that vase..."

_But if it's fake then how did it lose a petal?_

Yoshino and Saotome steadily made their way up the staircase. At the top was what looked like an empty art gallery, but the lights were dimmed.

_This...is still part of the haunted gallery, right? It looks a little different...and more...empty..._

'Hey! This is the gallery we visited as a class!" Yoshino exclaimed.

"I feel strange...as if...I'll never see the outside world again..." Saotome whispered.

When she turned around, the staircase back down had disappeared.

"I have a bad feeling...what's going on? Where are we?!" she started to panic.

"Saotome, calm down! I'll get us outta here, and we'll find Ib! So shut up and help me look for a way out!"

"There is no way out."

A voice sounded from behind them. Saotome looked up hopefully at the familiar voice.

"Aki?!" Yoshino yelled. "You're here?! Ib told us you were here...but...!"

Aki smiled at her former classmates. Even if Yoshino wasn't her favourite person on Earth, she was still glad to see them.

Saotome smiled back. "Can you help us find a way out of this place?"

"I already told you," Aki shrugged. "there's no way out. True, there is the painting on the second floor...but that...is a little wrecked."

Yoshino stared at Aki. "The second floor?! We gotta go there, Otome! C'mon!"

Saotome glanced at Aki. "Are you...stuck here?" she asked delicately.

Aki nodded. "Yes. But listen, don't go that way! It's not gonna-"

But Yoshino was already dragging Saotome up the stairs.

"Yoshino, stop it! Wait, we can't go this way!" Saotome tried to pull out of Yoshino's grip. "Didn't you hear what Aki said? It's too dangerous!"

"I don't care, Otome!" Yoshino yelled. She raced for the painting, letting go of Saotome's arm.

She skidded to a halt in front of a huge painting. "This must be the way out." she muttered.

Just as Yoshino was climbing into the painting, Saotome leaped forwards and landed beside her.

Yoshino tripped, and fell out of the painting.

"Otome! What the hell're you doin'?!"

"We're staying away from this painting, okay? Now let's get back to the entrance and look for that staircase. We need to find Ib!" Saotome stood up and tried to get down from the painting.

But it was like there was a glass barrier in the way of her and the rest of the gallery.

"Wh-what?!" she cried. "Yoshino...what's going on?!"

"I-I dunno!" Yoshino backed away from the painting, looking scared.

_What is this? Why am I stuck here?!_

Suddenly, Saotome's vision began to fade. "Y-Yoshino! Where are you?! I-I can't see anything! Help!"

"Saotome! I can't see you, I can't see the painting! Where are you?!" Yoshino yelled, as she tried to step forward. She tripped and fell over.

"Nooo!" Saotome cried desperately. "I-I don't want to die! I'm not ready! Help me! _Yoshino! Tohma! Aki!"_

Then everything faded away. Saotome was left all alone in the blackness. She tried to move forward, but pain shot through her body. Her pink rose withered away to nothing, and she lay, defeated, on the ground.

_So yet another one is lost? I wonder who is next? Perhaps it will be the youngest one...the one with the red rose. Yes...it has been decided. Ib shall be next. We will not concentrate on anything else until she is one of us._


End file.
